Combating Human Trafficking in Santa Clara County

For combating human trafficking in Santa Clara County, 2023 was, to paraphrase Charles Dickens, both the best of times and the worst of times.

We are in the best of times because human trafficking prosecutions in our county increased by 40% in 2023 and convictions were up by 33%. A total of 92 defendants were charged and 21 of them were convicted last year. The remaining 71 cases are still pending in the court system.

The county’s Law Enforcement Investigating Human Trafficking Taskforce, founded in 2014, is now the largest human trafficking taskforce in Northern California and the third largest in the state. Thanks to federal grant funds and a collaboration by District Attorney Jeff Rosen and the Board of Supervisors to enhance the task force’s budget, the quality and quantity of human trafficking investigations, both victim recovery and the apprehension of traffickers, are at unprecedented levels in Santa Clara County.

For almost 20 years, the South Bay Coalition to End Human Trafficking, led by Sharan Dhanoa, has been a key partner in the efforts to not only end trafficking in Santa Clara County and bring traffickers to justice but also to ensure that trafficking survivors get the assistance they need and are not criminalized.

Thanks to the efforts of the coalition and other advocates, we are doing more than ever before to help survivors of human trafficking. The District Attorney’s Office Victims’ Services Unit provided more than 400 direct services to almost 100 survivors of human trafficking in 2023, including assistance with relocation, housing, mental health and substance use treatment placement, legal assistance referral, and more.

Tragically, human trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of children continues to be a significant issue in Santa Clara County, and for those still being exploited it remains the worst of times. The most recent statistics from the county’s departments of Juvenile Probation and Family and Children Services makes the case that the population of sexually exploited children in Santa Clara County continues to grow at an alarming rate. Our local law enforcement agencies need more personnel, training, and resources to adequately address the number of local young people who are at-risk of becoming sexually exploited and trafficked.

Within the next several years, we will see the Super Bowl, World Cup soccer, and likely 2028 Olympic events held in Santa Clara County. As exciting as it is to host these global spectacles, they also are irresistible attractions to human traffickers. Thanks to the work done over the past decade by the Board of Supervisors, District Attorney, local law enforcement agencies, and the South Bay Coalition to End Human Trafficking, we have built a strong foundation and become a regional and national leader in the efforts to end human trafficking. However, we need to continue to increase the resources we commit to both stopping trafficking and supporting its survivors.